


oh, we searched all night

by magicites



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Humanstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-14
Updated: 2013-04-14
Packaged: 2017-12-08 12:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/761371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicites/pseuds/magicites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Let's stay like this, forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	oh, we searched all night

**Author's Note:**

> I love Vriska/Terezi. With all of my heart.

It's 2:57 A.M. when your phone rings. The Law and Order theme echoes throughout the room, and Judge Judy's ruling on your trial comes to an abrupt halt when your eyes fly open. You grope around blindly - being inside of a pitch-black room can do that to a person, regardless of whether or not they are legally blind - until your hand wraps around cool metal.

Your fingers taps against the glowing screen, and you put your mystery caller on speaker.

"I need to get out of here," Vriska's voice tells you.

"Then get out," you mutter, voice still heavy with sleep.

She groans, loud and obnoxious and filling your room so fully with the essence of Vriska Serket that you feel as if there's no longer any space for you. "You're supposed to be here for me, Terezi! You know, maybe even offer me a fucking place to stay for the fucking night!?"

"The cashier at 7-11 likes you," you say, your own voice quiet and carefully leveled out. It's like scooping out a cup of flour and scraping off the excess with a knife. Just the amount needed, and not a single bit more.

"They said if I show up there alone during the night one more time, I'm going to be banned," Vriska grumbles, and you bark out a laugh. She makes some sort of frustrated sound, and you laugh louder.

"So you want me to invite you over here?"

"Yeah, that'd be pretty great!" Vriska chirps.

You can see it in your mind's eye: Vriska clambering up the side of your house just to fall into your room through your window, spinning in your chair round and round and round until she makes herself sick, curling up in your bed like a wounded animal.

You imagine what would happen once the sun finally rises, and a shiver runs down your back.

"You know I'm not allowed to have ruffians sneak into my room at night," you say.

Vriska lets some offended screech fly out of her mouth, and you bump down the volume of your speaker a few notches. You don't need to go deaf as well. "Then what the fuck am I supposed to do, huh!?"

She's asking you to come out and wait in the fucking cold with her.

"I'll pick you up," you say, and bite back a sigh. "Ten minutes. Be at the corner of Fifth and Jones." You end the call, and finally let out that heavy sigh.

It takes only a few minutes for you to pull on some decent boots and a hoodie, taking care to adjust your glasses before slipping out of your window. From there, it's a simple hop to the big elm in your front yard and a fast shimmy down. You go through the motions without a second thought, the actions long since etched deep into muscle memory.

You shiver and tuck your hands into the pockets of your sweatshirt, hands running anxiously over each other to the rhythm of the snow crunching beneath your boots. You reach your car, and fumble your keys from out of your pocket. The cold air makes your knuckles ache as you turn the key.

The inside of the car is even chillier, as if the air itself is frozen. You turn on the car, your own breath ghosting over your hands as you wait for the heater to finally kick in.

You weigh your choices. Be on time to pick Vriska up but stuck in a cold and miserable mobile freezer (you can already hear her complaints about freezing her ass off even more in here), or be a couple minutes late at the price of having a warm car.

You shove your hands back in your pockets, and let your head fall back against the headrest. A hollow smack resonates through the small space.

You close your eyes, and open them, the world now in sharp focus. Sometimes, you wish you could just go without your glasses all the time. Eyesight can get overwhelming. 

When you can finally move your hands without your joints feeling like rusted metal, you start the car and drive off. Even in the dark, you drive without too much care; this path has been firmly burned into your mind.

This event is just one in a series, each almost identical to the one before. Vriska calls you at an hour that should not have the right to exist, and you go chase after her like some lovesick school girl. One day, your parents are finally going to catch you and their threats to make you cut off all contact with her will finally become a reality.

You're not ready for that day. It needs to remain a far off possibility, visited only in your nightmares.

You park against the curb and watch her scurry to the passenger side of your car and wrench the door open, nearly sending it flying off its hinges.

"If you break it, then you pay for it," you warn her. She sighs, and leans back in her seat, fingers nearly purple with cold dancing in front of the heater.

"I'm not going to break it. It's a car, not a fucking glass vase!" She snaps.

You roll your eyes, despite the knowledge that she's not going to care enough to look over and see it. "So, where are we going?" You ask her. your voice barely rising over the heater's buzz.

Vriska shrugs. "Anywhere's fine with me, I guess."

You think of places you could go to at this hour without having to pay any money (you didn't bring any and you don't need to ask to know that Vriska's broke), and come up dreadfully short.

"...Remember that park we used to go to when we were kids?" Vriska asks, turning to you. "Let's go there." She says, the tight line of her lips set in stone.

It's a strange suggestion, but you grin, and drive off. Vriska huddles close to the heater, flicking the vents until every one she can reach is blowing towards her. You take a hand off the steering wheel to lightly smack her arm, but it comes in contact with icy skin and you move back.

She can hog the heat, but only for now.

The park that holds a majority of your favorite childhood memories is much smaller and lonelier now, the central play area nothing more than colorful plastic shapes jutting out against a blanket of snow. It's not much more than a few slides, a jungle gym, and a couple of swings, but that doesn't stop you from wanting to crawl all over it again. Both you and Vriska look out the window longingly, but actually going to the park means leaving the warmth and safety of your car.

It takes a few moments before you finally think of a solution. "Reach under your seat," you instruct Vriska. "There are a few candles.

"Candles? What the hell do we need candles fo--oh." She says, and does as you told her to, pulling out a few thick candles nestled in glass containers. Despite the different colors, they're all dragonspice scented (your favorite scent, of course). "I have a lighter!" She announces proudly, and there's only a split second of hesitation before you're both dashing out of the car and clambering up the jungle gym.

She plops down at the very top of the structure, clambering inside a small alcove where the top of the slide meets the rest of the gym. She's all bony legs and skinny arms, so you crawl next to her as she bundles herself up into a mess of limbs sticking out at odd angles and hair.

The candles are placed between you, and you grab Vriska's lighter and carefully light each other.

Teal, cerulean, red, in that order. The red burns the brightest.

Vriska looks down at her shoes, red Converse reduced to scraps of fabric and rubber due to her constant abuse, and she grins. "I think red is my favorite color," she says, and you laugh.

"Well, of course! It is simply the best color," you respond.

"Blue is pretty great too!"

"So is teal!" You chime back, hands deliberately running over the teal stripes on your jacket. Vriska's fingers trace the blue symbols on her shirt, and the chapped skin on her lips splits as she smiles.

"Let's stay like this forever," she says.

"Cold and one tipped candle away from committing arson and destroying public property?" You suggest. She laughs, and punches you in the arm. It stings, but she rubs your arm as an afterthought, and the pain goes away.

"You know what I mean." She says, leaning against the railing. Her hand crawls along the plastic she sits on, fingers carefully circling around the candles in the center. She bumps into your hand, and you look down, waiting to see what she'll do next.

"Hey, Vris!" You hear a shout, and Vriska freezes up, drawing her hand away from yours. The both of you look in the direction of the voice, and you see a blurry, dark shape in the distance. "I can't fuckin' see you."

"It's just Eridan," she whispers to you. "Hey, fishface!" She calls out, louder. "I'm by the candle flames!"

He walks to the edge of the jungle gym, and from here, you can make out the most basic aspects of his features: thick-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, tiny eyes squinting up at the two of you, and an angular, sharp face. "You comin' or not, Vris? I got places to be."

You aren't actually close with Ampora. He's in your mutual circle of friends, but he a newcomer and tends to stay on the outskirts, only bothering Karkat or Vriska when you aren't around. You've spoken to him a few times, but never enough to form any sort of bond. You prefer it that way.

Lately, he's gotten into a lot of trouble. A couple of police scares, a few bails paid by rich and forgiving parents.

(A couple of calls from an arrested Vriska. A couple of times you've had to hide the drugs she was holding for someone else within your plush dragons. You had gutted them long ago, and the small baggies fit perfectly within them, like they were made to stay there.)

"You can go," you whisper. "I don't care."

Vriska goes silent, and neither you nor Ampora can break the silence. She glances to you, glances to Ampora, and lets her breath come out as a warm sigh that freezes in the chilly air.

"Hurry up! I'm freezin' my ass off out here." Ampora says curtly, and your expression turns sour. If Vriska notices, she doesn't say anything.

"Go home, Eridan!" Vriska shouts. "I think I'm gonna stay here for a bit." She looks to you, and grins. The candlelight reflects off of her chipped canine.

"What the fuck!" Eridan shouts back. "You fuckin' call me at ass o clock in the mornin', an' then you fuckin' send me home with my tail between my legs. You ain't gettin' another one a these meetings anytime soon, Vris." He complains.

"Fuck you too!" She shouts, and with a loud, offended grunt, he spins around on one foot and stomps off into the darkness. His grumbling fades from earshot within just a few minutes.

You break into laughter, coming out of your mouth in loud, obnoxious snorts and hitching giggles. Vriska laughs with you (or maybe at you, you're not sure and you can't bring yourself to really care), loud and equally as obnoxious.

She takes your hand, and you stay with her until the sun's first rays of light peek over the horizon, dying the sky purple and orange and pink.

Your candles melt down to nothing, and at that point, you retreat to your car.

You don't let go of her once.


End file.
